Lindsay Dempsey

Dr. Dredger
READ 420
April 16, 2015
10 Content-Area Literacy Strategies for Art, Mathematics, Music, and
Physical Education
Abstract: Content-area literacy involves the use of research-based
learning strategies that help students effectively and efficiently gain
content knowledge. Its use is fundamental to all content areas, not just
to those that rely heavily on printed materials. One of the major goals
of content-area instruction is to produce critical thinkers and problem
solvers, and content-area literacy is a tool that teachers use to help
students achieve this goal. Through this authors teaching experiences,
she (Ming) learned about literacy strategies that are useful in art,
mathematics, music, and physical education. Thus, in this article, she
discusses the importance of using literacy in content-area instruction.
Specifically, she talks about how literacy strengthens students
language arts skills, shares 10 content-area literacy strategies that can
be integrated into the four content areas, and provides specific
examples of what they would look like in each area.
Key Points
1. Content-area literacy is the ability to use listening, speaking,
reading, writing, and viewing to gain information within a specific
discipline. It is known to increase reading comprehension, build
conceptual knowledge, and foster problem-solving skills.
2. In physical education, successful performance requires students
to plan, reason, strategize, and reflect, and when they listen,
speak, read, and write, they perform these activities.
3. Writing is the process by which students compose text in a
coherent fashion. It comes in many different forms such as
journal entries, paragraph responses, responses, poems, and
quick writes.

4. There are two collaborative groupings options: group retellings

and jigsaw groups. Group retellings is when students of differing
abilities work in groups of three or more; each member reads a
different text on the same topic; after reading, each member
shares what they have read while other members listen and at
any point share additional information and insights. Jigsaw
groups are when the teacher provides a main topic for students
to explore; then the teacher places three to six members in a
team (each member a subtopic of the larger topic); temporarily
leave the group to join expert group (members who have
studied the same subtopic) and discuss and share ideas; then
experts return to jigsaw teams to teach their subtopic to the
other group members.
5. The 10 content-area literacy strategies are: ensure authentic
writing, foster collaboration, encourage discussion, use graphic
organizers, incorporate relevant text, model think alouds, allow
visual representation, include visuals, teach visualization, and
integrate engaging vocabulary.
6. This article had great example boxes for each content area and
the examples of how they can be incorporated. For example,
under incorporate relevant text, the examples are to read the
sports section of the newspaper or sports magazine articles and
read game rules, lists, charts, graphs, and playbook materials.

Discussion Questions
1. Do you think any of the 10 strategies would something that you
could easily incorporate into your future classroom? If so, which
ones? If not, why not?

2. Do you think teaching through content-area instruction can be

beneficial for physical education, a subject so reliant on
movement and performance? Why or why not?

Ming, K. (2012). 10 Content-Area Literacy Strategies for Art,

Mathematics, Music and Physical Education. Clearing House 85(6),
213-220. Doi:10.1080/00098655.2012.691568